Education technology

As schools across the country transition to distance learning due to the COVID-19 crisis, a new Connected Communities and Inclusive Growth (CCIG) report documents the extent of the distance learning gap in Los Angeles County. The distance learning gap refers to the gap between students living in households with high-speed Internet and a desktop or laptop computer, and those without these essential resources for effective distance learning. Among the key findings are:

COVID-19 highlights society’s inability to cope, even amid the technology prowess of the US.  In the land that invented the microchip, we have neglected the fundamentals. One particular concern is how internet broadband is not available to many workers and students in some rural and inner-city areas and on Native American lands. If you can’t work or take classes from home because you don't have internet, you are at a distinct disadvantage.

Home-schooling looks a little different for some families across the country, especially those who can't afford unlimited internet access. Tawana Brown of South Bend, Indiana begins each day by driving her family to a parking lot where school buses that are equipped with Wi-Fi are parked. She has been keeping up with this daily schedule after coronavirus concerns led to the closure of schools in the South Bend school district.

Internet access is, of course, fundamental to sound educational policy. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 12 million schoolchildren had trouble completing schoolwork because they lacked internet access at home. Nevertheless, there is significantly more to online education than streaming a lesson designed for the classroom. Effective virtual education requires new styles of teaching as well as curriculum materials designed specifically for online use.

 In the Symmes Valley Local School District in Lawrence County, in southern Ohio, Superintendent Darrell Humphreys estimates that less than 15% of his 800 students have “good internet,” capable of streaming video. The rural district has Wi-Fi in its two-building campus, when it’s open. But within a 30-minute drive there is no McDonald’s or other fast-food place that has an internet hot spot. In fact, “a large part of the district doesn’t even have cellphone service,” Humphreys said. Instead, assignment packets, about 20 pages each, have been mailed to each student’s home.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will use the $100 million provided for the ReConnect Program in the CARES Act to invest in qualified 100 percent grant projects that did not receive funding in the program’s first round of ReConnect Program investments. Round one applicants who did not receive funding because there was broadband access in the proposed service area may submit an application during the second round to receive this priority as long as their proposed service area meets the requirements of the ReConnect Round 2 Funding Opportunity Announcement.

As of April 13, 2020, school closures in the U. S. have impacted at least 124,000 public and private schools and affected at least 55.1 million students. Yet, millions of U.S. households either do not have access to broadband networks or can't afford service. Students in these homes are cut off from educational opportunities that schools are now offering online only. The question is: How can we continue to educate these students in the coming weeks and months? In an April 10 presentation to the Federal Communications Commission, an organization called Funds For Learning offered a plan.

In Phoenix (AZ), the digital divide is stark, despite a massive effort to get families connected to the Internet. So Chad Gestson, the superintendent of the high school district, and his team created an initiative called Every Student, Every Day: They pledged to call every student — there are about 28,000 of them — every day. "We certainly haven't abandoned the importance of the Internet and laptops and devices and online learning," Gestson explains. "We continue to push that. But we serve a large population of youth who don't have devices or connectivity in the house.

The industry's pre-coronavirus agenda isn't vanishing — but its priorities have already been reshuffled. These agenda items have jumped to the top of the list: 1) Transforming healthcare, 2) Distance learning and the digital divide, 3) Network bandwidth and resilience, and 4) Misinformation and media polarization.